The Fugitive Son (37 page)

She heard Pa clearing his throat and realized she had missed part of her parents’ conversation.

Charles struck a plaintive tone. “Do you think I enjoyed traveling so much and being away from my families? I sacrificed my life to serve the prophet in far-off lands. I have lived my life in duty to the church and to God. And I expect you and my children to do your duty.”

“Hogwash! You enjoy traveling. That way you don’t have to be a husband and father, and you don’t have to do real work. And how convenient that you were out of the country throughout the entire war between the states, instead of fighting for the cause like a man!”

Mary stifled a laugh as she pumped her legs to make the swing go higher. Ma sure was fired up. When she got like this, there was no arguing with her. But Pa obviously didn’t understand who he was dealing with.

“And just which cause would that be?” he asked. “Should I have risked my life to free the slaves or to help the Southern plantation owners keep their way of life? Even the prophet urged us not to take sides. It wasn’t our war.” Charles paused, then changed the subject. “What’s that confounded clanging noise I keep hearing?

“Oh, that’s just Mary in the swing Matthew built for her before he left,” Hettie said. “Whenever she’s frustrated or sad, she swings. It makes a lot of noise because one of the bolts is loose, and the whole thing jerks and shakes when she goes too high.”

“Why doesn’t Matthew just fix the bolt?”

Mary jumped out of the swing, letting it clang even louder. How much less of a father could he be? Tears stung her eyes as she edged closer to the cabin.

“You haven’t heard?” Hettie asked in disbelief.

“Heard what, woman?”

“Matthew was killed in the Morrisite Rebellion back in ‘62 – by soldiers under the orders of your beloved prophet!”

“My son was with the Morrisites? What were you thinking to let him go with such apostates?” Charles’ voice seethed with anger.

“Matt was a good boy and very devout,” Hettie said. “When John Banks came preaching the truths of Joseph Smith, claiming that Brigham Young had corrupted the gospel with his teachings on blood atonement, polygamy, and all that other nonsense, Matt believed him and went with him to help re-establish Smith’s original church.”

“And you let him go? Do you not have any sense at all, woman? Do you know how this makes me look?”

Mary heard a loud thud, as if Pa had kicked something. Worried about Ma’s safety, she burst into the cabin. “Don’t you go blaming Ma for your mistakes,” she shouted at Pa. “And when we were grieving for Matt, none of us gave a thought about you, or your reputation with the prophet. Why should we? You’re not part of our life.”

Taken by surprise, Charles turned his anger toward her. “You best remember who you’re talking to, missy.”

“I’m talking to a total stranger, that’s who,” Mary shot back. “Had you been a real father – a father who’s there for his children – my brother would still be alive. He wouldn’t have gone off following the first man who treated him like a son.”

Mary lowered her voice as Ma reached out to take her hand. “Besides, Matt was 18, plenty old enough to make up his own mind about what he wanted to believe and where he wanted to go. What did you expect Ma to do, shoot him out of the saddle like you did to Andy?”

One look at Pa’s face told Mary she had crossed a line. She hadn’t meant to say anything about her half-brother, but it was too late to take her words back. Besides, she knew they were true.

Charles turned his back on Mary, venting his anger on Hettie. “What kind of wild lies have you been spreading? I didn’t kill Andy,” he thundered. “Besides, had you been a proper wife and mother, you wouldn’t have helped him try to escape Deseret in the first place!”

“So now it’s my fault that you’ve lost your two oldest sons?” Hettie almost smirked at him. “I’m not the one who took Andy down to Mountain Meadows to massacre an entire wagon train of innocent people!”

Charles reached out angrily, grabbing Hettie roughly by the shoulders. “What do you know about Mountain Meadows? The Indians did all of that…”

Hettie pulled away from him in disgust. “Haven’t you read any newspapers lately? Even though it happened ten years ago, everybody in the whole country is talking about it. Brigham may have tried to pin it on the Indians, but the truth is coming out. You and your brotherhood can make all the blood oaths and secret hand signals you want, but it won’t change the fact that you murdered those families.”

By now, Charles was livid with rage. “That’s enough!” he shouted. “I will not allow my children to live with a woman who has such hatred for the church.” He picked up his hat and stomped out the door. As he stepped outside, he turned and shook his fist at Hettie. “I will be back to take them home with me where they belong. Have them packed and ready to go in two weeks!”

To be continued…

A
DELL HARVEY
has served as a counter-cult missionary to the Mormons in southeast Idaho alongside her husband for more than 20 years. Having planted a church in a town that had never had anything of a religious nature but a Mormon ward in its 100-year history, they later pastored the only non-Mormon church in an entire county. God richly blessed their ministry, resulting in many Mormons coming to Christ. Some of these former Mormons gave the author their family genealogical records, historical diaries, and patriarchal blessings, which served as the impetus for this series.

Adell has eight children, sixteen grandchildren, and ten “greats.” Since her husband’s retirement as director of an international mission board, Adell continues in ministry to the Mormons, as a facilitator in the mission’s Punjabi Indian community, and as a humor speaker and writer, as well as full-time caretaker of her disabled husband. She was awarded an honorary PhD from a Baptist seminary in Cote d’voire, Africa, for her “many years of outstanding ministry and her large body of literary works.”

Visit
www.KamelPress.com/Harvey
for more about this author!

A
N AWARD-WINNING
journalist with a passion for history, Mari Serebrov has authored a variety of books, including
The Life and Times of W.H. Arnold of Arkansas,
the historical novel
Mama Namibia
and a children’s book,
Jahohora and First Day
. She also contributed to
The Grandmother’s Bible
and has co-authored a number of church resource books with her mother, Adell Harvey.

Because of her work in calling attention to the first genocide of the 20th century in what was then German South-West Africa, Mari was named the literary laureate of the Herero Tribal Authority in 2013. She and her husband, Job, an Anglican minister, have two children and five grandchildren.

Visit
www.KamelPress.com/Serebrov
for more about this author!

Read story that started it all...
The Locket: Escape from Deseret
Book One

In the late 1850's, thousands of poverty-stricken Scandinavians were lured to America by missionaries of the Latter-day Saints with promises of great prosperity. Ingrid Thirkelsen’s marriage to Brother Rasmussen is as surprising to her as the hope he stirs within. Assigned to the Martin Party of immigrants, she sets out after him, encountering for the first time the horrors of polygamy, blood atonement and blind obedience to cult leaders.

As she makes the handcart trek across the Plains and Rocky Mountains, a locket she has promised to deliver in Zion and her Ma's Bible are the only items that give her comfort and the strength to endure the unendurable.

Don’t wait! Grab your copy today!
ORDER NOW!

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